June 17, 2008

Well, if you don't know by now, I'm back in the USA. I returned mid-May to Denver with my sister Jo, her husband Brian and their baby Isobel -- who I met for the first time! She's a doll. I surprised my family at the wedding of Becky and Miles -- my niece and her husband. The wedding was great, beautiful weather and I got to see many family members. I'll update with pictures soon.

My plans are to move back up to Portland permanently sometime in July or early August, and return to work at the library in September.

I miss my Peace Corps family and friends already, but I will keep in touch with them. The PC was a fantastic experience -- challenging, educational, and a real adventure. Because I had finished my projects and everything, I was allowed to leave a bit early. My host family and school gave me a wonderful going away party, and I left with lots of great memories. I'll post the video of the party if I can figure out how :-)

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone here in the States. I wish you all well. Keep in touch!

April 25, 2008

Last week Babo (that’s grandma to you) made new mattresses. I took pictures and explained to her that we didn’t really make our own mattresses in the US, she looked up sort of incredulous and said, what, you buy them in stores? I was like, yeah.

Anyway, I’m posting some pictures with this entry, and it includes Babo Mary sitting and picking through the wool -- I think she’s looking for critters or sticks or something, and also fluffing it up a bit. She sits for hours and days with a big pile of raw wool in front of her and picks through it. Next, she squares it up and then puts it in between some pieces of fabric and sews up the sides. These mattresses sit under something heavy to de-fluffify them, I guess. Puts them into the right consistency for sleeping.

The beds here -- at least in my house -- are wood frames and wire springs. They sag in the middle. During the summer, I fold my sleeping bag in half lengthwise and put it under my mattresses to make it a little flatter. I tried tightening the springs a few times when I first got here, but that didn’t work too well.

It’s funny. The bed is probably the least comfortable I’ve slept in, but now, when I go away, I have trouble sleeping elsewhere. I’m used to it.

The other pictures I’m attaching include Babo (again) making Mother’s Bread. I wrote about this in another blog a while back. I’ll caption the pictures to describe the action, but basically you slap dough on the insides of a hot round stone oven and wait till it’s baked.

I think I’ve also included some pictures from just around Sagarejo. Including some pieces of transportation. And including people selling stuff out of the trunks of their cars. I’m not talking about hot watches or something. They sell apples and sausages and stuff like that. Sometimes you’ll be on the road and a car will pass full -- front seat, back seat and all in between -- with some fruit or another. I mean, piled high on the seats till there’s no window left.

That’s it for now. It’s getting warmer now, thank goodness, but the downside is that I definitely have spring fever. Going to school is getting harder… Ah, but soon it will be over. Sigh.

I’ve lately had a few run-ins with animals. Not pets, and I didn’t go to the zoo or anything… These were animals of the unwanted types.

The other morning I frightened a rat in the bathroom. I was walking in, and he scuttled out in a hurry. My scream was smallish,and anyway, they always tell me that they’re more afraid of me than I am of them. Hmm. Not sure if that’s really true.

A few days ago there were ants in the sugar bowl. I just sort of pushed them out of the way, cause I needs my sugar in this stuff they refer to as ‘coffee’ here. I don’t think I swallowed any ants.

The weirdest critter event was a dead bird in my room. I was looking for something, thought maybe it dropped under the table. Luckily it was twilight so I didn’t see the dead bird full on, but there she was. I don’t know how or when it got into my room. I mean, I leave the window open sometimes, but only when I’m here. And don’t you think I would have heard or seen it before it dropped dead under my table?

The latest is a mouse. Maybe more than one. The first time I saw it a few days ago I screamed (of course) but no one else was home, and I wasn’t about to chase after it myself. When I saw it again, Gio came up and tried to ferret it out (no pun intended) but couldn’t find it. So he laid a trap for it. (See picture.) The next time I saw my little friend, it ran RIGHT PAST the trap and under my couch. This time, Salome, Gio and Piruzi all came up to my room and between the three of them, they caught and killed it. I’m sorry that it had to die, actually, but that’s the way of the world here in Georgia. Piruzi carried it downstairs by its tail to show me. No thanks, I believe it, don’t need to see it.

So, those are my critter tales for this week.

Oh, one more. The 8th grade students were real BEARS today in class! Not literally, of course…

March 19, 2008

Spring really seems to have come to Georgia. I know that as soon as I say that we’ll get another cold spell… so ssshhh! Don’t jinx it. We need all the warmth we can get.

This week at school I’ve been working with Zaira on our English Language Resource Center at school. Zaira is amazing! We got our project money in late January, with a projected finish day of our project for the end of April, and here is it the middle of March and we are -- for all intents and purposes -- finished. The furniture was delivered last week, and we’ve spent this week arranging the room. It’s quite small, but we fit everything in. Hopefully the school will be remodeled by the government in the next year or so, and Zaira and Nino -- the English teachers -- will have a larger room to teach in.

On Sunday, Salome (sa-loh-may, since you asked J) and I went to “the Center” for a bit of shopping and hanging out. Not a lot of places were open, but we bought some cheap rings, and I got some new hankerchiefs. We were going to stop for chachapuri, but the café had been turned into a little knick-knack store since we were last there. Who knew? Businesses come and go so quickly around here.

Since it is spring, my family has been working outdoors a lot of the time. Grandpa and Grandma often go to the field -- they’ve planted potatoes and pruned the grape vines. When they are at home they work on the smallish garden they have here.

There are some fruits and veg that I was not particularly familiar with until I got to Georgia. I’d had pomegranate and figs, but they are very common here, we have a couple trees in our yard. They also have persimmons and quince, which until I got here were fruits that I had only read about in the bible or English literature or something… I don’t like either one very much, but the home-canned persimmons aren’t too bad. Or is it the quince? Those aren’t the Georgian names, of course. They also have a berry-type thing that has the same color and tastes like a cranberry, but it’s got a pear-shape, small though, about as big as a blackberry. In the west, there are mandarin trees all over the place, and they grow tea as well. Here in the east, grapes are the specialty. Lots of apples, peaches and pears too.

One thing they don’t have, and most people haven’t even heard of here is lettuce. Oh, you can find it in a few of the restaurants in the capital, but in the regions, no one seems to know what it is. Also, no avacados.

There are some ethnic restaurants in Tbilisi: Thai, Chinese, Italian, Russian. But they are few and far between. When I come back I think Mexican will be the first cuisine I re-acquaint myself with. Then Indian. Then Middle Eastern. Then pizza. That will be interspersed with trips to coffee houses and Dairy Queen. Just kidding about the DQ. Nah, not really kidding at all…

March 12, 2008

The other night, Salome wanted to watch one of my movies. I showed her "The Wizard of Oz." Even though she didn't understand all the dialog, she got the gyst of the story, especially the witch part. I told her that everyone -- I mean everyone -- in America knows of this movie.

My family has a computer now. They bought a used laptop a few months ago, and mostly the kids use it to play games and listen to music and watch videos. I'm glad they were able to get it. It's strange to you and me, but only maybe 5% (if that) of the kids at school have computers at home. Or have even used one.

We do have computers at school, but keeping a computer teacher seems to be a challenge, so I'm not sure the students are getting any benefit out of them. The Ministry of Education and Science (who makes all the rules and decisions for the school system) has promised that by 2011 (I think) all the schools in Georgia will have internet. We'd be happy with windows, frankly.

My counterpart teacher (Zaira -- a wonderful lady) and I submitted and were approved for a SPA (Small Project Assistance) grant. We got about $2000 to make an "English Language Resource Center" for our school. Basically, we have painted up a little room real nice, washed the grime off the windows and such, and we're buying a computer for the teacher to use, as well as a printer/scanner, and some desks and chairs for the students. We also are buying a white board (you should see the state of the blackboards at my school. Most of them have holes in them). We have some books that we procurred from other sources already, so when the room is ready, it will be a nice place to have English clubs, and for Zaira to work on lesson planning, and for kids to study in after school. The room is quite small, but hopefully, the school will be renovated in the next year or two, and they'll be able to move the stuff into a new bigger room where all the English classes can be conducted.

Folks here are so appreciative when you get money or things for them. They have so little, and so little chance of getting anything. $2000 is not a lot of money, but it's getting us a little something that the school needs. So that's great.

I also worked with my host mother, Marina, on an even smaller project recently. She's a music teacher and she wanted a music center and a couple of microphones, so that she can improve the level of her voice classes. We were also able to purchase some cds. Her students learn Georgian, Russian and English songs, and sometimes French, Spanish, Italian too. So that was another small accomplishment.

Well, that's all from the front for now. It's getting late-ish, I'm getting tired, and my room is getting cold because the fire it out... so I guess that means it's time for bed!